The Enneagram

Is at the heart of everything we do

When I first learned my type,
it was astonishing how real it was ... so much of me started making sense when I understood what shapes me and what makes me who I am. And once you have that awareness, you have such a powerful tool to work with. Then you can actively start managing your own life and fixing and improving things.

Dave Aitken - CEO, FNB Tanzania

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is the best predictor of success in any field. It’s no surprise that people who understand themselves and can control their emotional state, while also understanding and empathising with others, build the best relationships and get the best results as leaders and team mates.

The tool that provides the most specific and personal insight for EQ development is the Enneagram, a personality profiling tool that can be traced back to Evagrius the Solitary, a monk and ascetic who lived in Alexandria around 385AD. It’s the ‘missing piece’ – a pathway to greater self awareness and better social skills – that lasts.

The Enneagram provides laser-like insight into the core of human behaviour and serves as a road map to navigate frailties while also fundamentally improving effective interaction.

9 styles and a world of discovery

The Enneagram is much more than a personality typology. It illustrates the nine different archetypes of the human personality and offers extremely accurate wholistic descriptions of how each style thinks, feels and behaves. Uniquely, it also explains the underlying drives and motivations for these patterns.

The Enneagram serves as a road map you can consult any time you feel lost or confused by what is happening between you and those around you. It’s a growth tool, built for a lifetime.

So how does it work?

The Enneagram helps individuals to develop greater self awareness, self acceptance and to take personal responsibility for their behaviours, changing a pattern of holding others or circumstances accountable for their problems and difficulties to one of taking responsibility for the consequences of their actions. What each person changes will vary between personality types, but what is universal is the ‘rounding’ of personality and improvement in relationships and communication.

Far from being a one-size-fits-all approach, the Enneagram zeroes in on the critical aspect of understanding people problems:acknowledging that people are different and identifying the differences in style, perspective and focus that can (and do) lead to problems. It’s the code-breaker anyone can understand and use. This enables everyone to become ‘active’ in their work environment rather than passive recipients.

‘Enneagram’ is derived from the Greek words ennéa, meaning ‘nine’ and grámma, meaning something ‘drawn’ so it’s essentially a description of the human psyche, which is principally interpreted as a typology of nine interconnected personality types.

The Enneagram journey begins with a personal questionnaire that takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. The results of the survey provide a starting point for identifying patterns of behaviour and the psychological structure of those patterns.

Our experience is that people are universally intrigued by the depth and accuracy of the Enneagram. It uncovers the basis of personality and the true source of behaviour providing key insight into why we become ineffective and how we can function at our best. It’s disarming. After more than a decade of coaching, team building and leadership training, the Enneagram has proven to be the most popular, effective and revealing tool we have used by a long margin.